By selling Ice Lemonade priced less than $1… See the previous post: A Sweet Lemon Tale — How MiXue Dominates China’s Lemonade Scene via Supply Chain Mixue - known for its cheap drinks and red-cloaked Snow King mascot - raised 444 million USD in an initial public offering by selling 17 million shares in the deal at a fixed price of HKD 202.5 each. Reuters. Founded in 1997 as a small ice shop in Zhengzhou, Henan province, Mixue has grown into a franchise giant with over 45,000 stores globally by September 2024, surpassing Starbucks’ 40,576 stores worldwide....

Bach’s Badinerie is a lively, charming flute piece that has become a favorite for virtuoso (or fancy) adaptations. Badinerie is a music term frequently used in the Baroque era used to describe light, lively, and playful pieces. It’s basically a French word meaning “playfulness” or “jesting.” Bach used the title Badinerie for only one piece—the last movement of his Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067. It’s a short, bouncy small piece full of joyful rapid notes, originally meant for flute solo, with strings and continuo (harpsichord + bass line)....

2025’s Oscar opening is amazing. Ariana Grande sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”: The performance is classy. A lot of information is hidden in the references. Particularly, at the very beginning before everything starts, the Orchestra tuned (on the key A). I think this is a remarkable and important signal that showcase realness and nostalgia. And of course, flashing cash like “yeahhh we oscar hires a live orchestra”…

Chopin was born March 1st, 1810. Happy 215th birthday to this brilliant composer-slash-pianist! Chopin was an exclusively piano composer (almost all of his works involve the piano, either solo or with accompaniment). He composed around 230 pieces, and his music is mostly categorized into 9 main genres: Études (27 pieces) – These are technical studies that go beyond mere exercises and are full of musicality (e.g., Revolutionary Etude, Black Key Etude, Winter Wind)....

I have Tchaikovsky’s Polonaise from Eugene Onegin (Op. 24) on repeat in my playlist. Since it’s such a grand waltz, I decided to look up its corresponding ballet choreography—only to end up watching the entire Eugene Onegin ballet without ever hearing the piece. Here’s why the Polonaise isn’t featured in the Onegin ballet. A Breakdown of Onegin’s Different Versions Novel and Opera Eugene Onegin’s portrait by Pushkin, Wikipedia. Eugene Onegin (also spelled Yevgeniy Onegin) is a novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....

Why Ballet? Maybe it comes down to personal taste—I’d say most girls and women, at some point in their lives, fall in love with ballet for its captivating femininity and artistry. But beyond that, ballet is a great way to invest your time—whether through practice, watching live performances in a theater, or even just playing YouTube videos in the background while doing laundry. Because ballet is both art and fun. It originated in Italian Renaissance in the 15th century, and developed into structured art by the passionate dancer King Louis XIV of France through establishing the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661....

The song Part of Your World is a song from the movie The Litte Mermaid (1989). Interestingly I think it fits so close to the state of mind where an undergrad aspiring for a PhD: “Even if we aren’t literally mermaids/mermen wanting to be human, there are some goals or things we want in life that are just as seemingly impossible. So while the song is specific to Ariel’s situation, it’s incredibly accessible to every audience member” (Howard Ashman, lyric writer who collaborated with Alen Menken to write the song)....

I went to a movie-soundtrack concert, and here’s the notes. Music has been a critical component of movie experience since its very beginning (1985). In the silent film era, live music was essential, with pianists and small ensembles performing alongside screenings. improvising and enhancing the on-screen action. Fun fact: Dmitri Shostakovich, before becoming a legendary composer, worked as a silent film pianist in Soviet Russia. With the arrival of synchronized sound, film scores became pre-recorded, often performed by full orchestras....

Stylistic choices when writing an academic document — by Jordan Boyd-Graber. While I don’t agree 100% with one of the author’s advice—using Beamer for creating poster—all others are remarkable cool and makes perfect sense. Whoever organized these advices is wise, generous and has really good taste!

Bike sharing is a great topic, it’s green and has lots of data. A relevant study: Understanding intra-urban human mobility through an exploratory spatiotemporal analysis of bike-sharing trajectories Wenwen Li et al. (shortened abstract) This paper presents a data-driven framework analyzing bike-sharing trips in Shanghai, the world’s largest bike-share city. It integrates multiple data sources—transport networks, road characteristics, and urban land use—to study short-trip mobility patterns. Findings highlight usage trends, trip distribution, and route choice factors, offering insights for city planning, bike-sharing operations, and sustainable transportation development....